[Fic] Too Good To Be True - FFVII, Zack/Cloud, 3/?
I'm sorry! I fail at updating, it's been almost a week longer than I meant it to be. -_- In my defence, my parents arrived from Ontario to visit me the Saturday before last, and they've eaten up all my free time. Given that they drove 4000km and haven't seen me in two years, I feel kind of obligated to give them my free time. >.<

They're not leaving until Monday, either, so I won't have time to write this weekend. ARGH. fyredancer, I'm sorry, I know I probably missed your re-birthday if you had it on the weekend like you said you were going to.

Look, ravyn_09! No accessory bitch, just like you asked. ^_^ It's probably all your fault, too. I had not planned this!

Title: Too Good To Be True
Series: Final Fantasy VII
Pairing: Zack/Cloud, probably some Cloud/Tifa or mention thereof, same for Zack/Aerith
Rating: NC-17
Warnings: violence, sex, yaoi, the usual.
Chapter Length: 4351
Total Length: 15,959
Author's Note: This takes place after AC, and is slightly AU in that Zack would not have been present with Aerith in the moments when Cloud touched the Lifestream. Or just tell yourself he was hallucinating Zack, if you like.

When things seem too good to be true it usually means there's a catch hidden somewhere. But hasn't Cloud earned his happy ending ten times over?

This chapter is not worksafe!

Also, check out the amazing picture ravyn_09 drew for the last chapter! (I've decided to start putting them on the next chapter as well, because nobody sees it when it's added a week later.) Minor spoiler for chapter 2.



It wasn't surprising that Cloud suffered from nightmares that night; indeed, he'd have been shocked if they'd been absent. A lot of bad memories and feelings had been dredged up, and he was prone to bad dreams even without that extra provocation. He'd expected visions of the lab, or maybe a looped replay of the moments on the cliff when Zack had been shot out from under him. Or possibly the old nightmare of Nibelheim in flames.

Instead he got Sephiroth, with his mocking smile and the gleam of madness in his eyes, taunting and tormenting him. They fought endlessly, and Cloud struggled and struggled to best the bastard, but all to no avail. Sephiroth stayed eternally just out of his reach, masamune's length allowing him to make hit after hit on Cloud while the blond swung at nothing but air. It was like the worst moments of all of their fights combined, and through it all Cloud had to face Sephiroth's condescending laughter spearing through him to hurt worse than any sword.

As many times as Cloud had faced and defeated the man, Sephiroth still treated every one of their encounters as if Cloud was so far beneath him that it was more like the former general was playing rather than fighting. No matter how much Cloud improved, how many times he killed the bastard, it always felt as if Sephiroth was completely in control of their battles until the moment when luck or sheer stubbornness allowed Cloud to get a hand up on him. And in his nightmares, that moment never came.

Like a mouse being toyed with by a cat, Cloud fought with a despairing certainty that nothing he did was ever going to change the outcome. Because even if he won this time, Sephiroth would just find another way to come back.

The worst part of the dreams was that he didn't wake from them. Normally Cloud's nightmares would eventually send him bolting up out of his bed in a cold sweat, panting and shaking but safe in the real world once more. This time they just went on and on, one futile battle after another, without even the escape of waking.

When he did finally manage to open his eyes, he found sunlight streaming in through the cracks of the shuttered windows. He'd slept through the night and most of the morning, judging by the angle of the beams. Well, what had been left of the night by the time he and Zack had finally collapsed into the beds, drunk off their asses and half lost in the delight of the memories they'd managed to remind each other of.

Maybe that was why he hadn't been woken by his dreams, Cloud considered, his thoughts muzzy from the after effects of the alcohol. He'd been drunk enough that 'passing out' probably would have been a more accurate description than 'falling asleep'.

Seeing Cloud moving, Zack yawned and rolled over. "Hey." He kept his voice soft in deference to his hangover - and to the hangover he knew Cloud probably had as well - but it still made the younger man jump. Blinking at him from his own bed a few feet away, Zack raised an eyebrow. "You okay? You seem a little twitchy."

"Nightmares," Cloud explained shortly, and Zack nodded in understanding. "I feel like I haven't slept at all. What about you?"

"About the same," Zack admitted wryly, stretching and working his way out of the sheets that had gotten tangled around him. He'd dreamed of being back in the lab, which wasn't too surprising. It was a struggle to convince himself that it had been just a dream, and not glimpses of reality between hallucinations of Cloud rescuing him. The fact that time seemed to be proceeding in a continuous and reasonable manner was about the only thing that made him sure this was real.

Well, that and the hangover. SOLDIER metabolism was fast enough that they didn't suffer the truly awful effects most people would have after drinking that much alcohol, but it didn't leave them entirely immune. Zack couldn't remember ever dreaming about having a hangover before.

Figuring Cloud could probably use that sort of logical reassurance as well, Zack grinned and said as much. "I'm starting to think maybe this is real after all. The headache is pretty convincing."

"Yeah." Squeezing his eyes shut against the stabs of pain caused by a sunbeam trickling over his face, Cloud scrunched himself deeper into his blankets. "I don't suppose Heal works on them, does it? Or Restore?"

"Nope, 'fraid not," Zack told him ruefully. "Probably just as well. Otherwise everyone would die of liver poisoning. What's the plan for today? Are we just hiding in here or what?"

"It's tempting," Cloud muttered, rubbing his face with one hand. He was so tired. Yesterday had been exhausting on so many levels, and his sleep hadn't exactly been restful. It wasn't as if anyone would worry if he didn't come home; he'd told Tifa he was making a delivery run and those could often take days, if not weeks.

But Zack was alive and even if this was real and the older man wasn't going to vanish, staying in bed meant giving up a whole day he could have spent with his friend making up for lost time. It felt like a sin to waste even a moment, when he'd never thought he would have any moments ever again.

Groaning, he shoved himself up out of the blankets, swinging his feet around to the floor and scrubbing at his tired eyes. Apparently he'd stripped down to his boxers at some point, though he didn't remember doing it. At least it was more comfortable than sleeping in his clothes and armour, though it wouldn't have been the first time and probably wouldn't have been the last if he'd done so.

"We've got too much to do, as much as I'd like to," he said wearily. The small smile he offered Zack wasn't in the least bit reluctant, though. Zack was still here. It was real. It was all real.

And Tifa was going to have a heart attack.

The thought made Cloud's lips twitch with laughter, and helped chase some of his exhaustion away. This was going to be an interesting day, all right. Eyes bright, he went hunting for his discarded clothes to take with him into the bathroom so he could shower.

Slipping out of the bed, Zack stretched and revelled in the pull of his muscles. He was sore; hanging onto Cloud on the bike had been more effort than he'd made in a very long time. The only reason he hadn't withered away into nothing was the enhancement and preservative properties of the mako. But the soreness was just one more thing to remind him that he wasn't in the tank any more, so he welcomed it.

Like Cloud, he'd stripped down before falling into bed the night before. Unlike Cloud he hadn't been wearing anything under the pants, so he was naked now. The idea of wearing someone else's - possibly dirty, since he doubted laundry had been a high priority for the techs - underwear had not been appealing. Zack had never had much body modesty to start with, though, and what little he'd once possessed had been beaten out of him during the war in Wutai. Privacy had been a non-existent commodity in the Shinra camps.

So he thought nothing of it, until he saw the way Cloud's gaze skittered over him as the younger man blushed and all but fled into the shower. Zack paused, blinked at the closed door to the bathroom, and then grinned. "Oh, right," he murmured to himself in amusement, gathering up his stolen clothes and dressing. "How could I forget about that?"

Maybe his memories were more faulty than he'd realized if he'd forgotten about Cloud's crush on him, because it had been blindingly obvious from day one. Now that he was thinking about it he could remember hundreds of times when the boy had gone blushing and tongue-tied around him, frantic blue eyes looking anywhere but at whatever had set him off.

It had been mostly hero-worship, with a healthy dose of the intensity brought about by emerging teenage hormones and compounded by the fact that as far as Zack could tell, he'd been the kid's first real friend. It had been flattering but inappropriate, since Zack had been the boy's commanding officer, and he had done his best to discourage it gently. That had been made more difficult by the fact that Cloud had tended to take any sign of rejection as an indication that Zack was finally getting bored with their friendship, the poor insecure bastard.

He'd also made very certain that Cloud never realized that Zack knew about it. Zack still remembered the pain and potential for humiliation of his own first crush, after all; it was hard to forget, when he'd worked so closely with Sephiroth. Thank all the gods he'd gotten over it quickly once he'd made SOLDIER, or his job could have become a real nightmare. The general had never seemed to notice; to this day Zack wasn't sure if the man had deliberately not seen it the same way Zack had ignored Cloud's crush, or if he'd truly been unaware of it in that odd socially inept way of his.

Not that it mattered now. His amused grin faded somewhat at the reminder of how much everything had changed. Sephiroth was not and never would be a friend again, even if he managed to find another way to return to life. Which Zack sincerely hoped he did not; not only had Cloud clearly been devastated by every time he'd had to kill the man he'd once worshipped as a hero, but Zack had no desire to have to fight someone he'd once considered a good friend.

Some things were still the same, though, and what remained of Zack's grin turned fond as he thought of the way Cloud's cheeks had flamed at the sight of him naked. Funny that the younger man was still suffering the effects of the crush even all these years later. Zack would have expected him to have grown out of it by now.

Then again, when would he have had a chance? Considering everything that had happened in the intervening time, Cloud had never had an opportunity to outgrow those early teenaged feelings. He'd probably get over it quickly enough now, once his subconscious mind realized his hormones weren't throwing him into a tizzy every time Zack was around.

In the meantime, it was both adorable and endearing the way the younger man had flushed at the sight of him, and it was also something reassuringly familiar.

Poking at the remains of dinner, Zack grimaced at the unappetizing congealed mess. There was no way they would be able to scrounge breakfast from the leftovers, and he was starving again.

Glancing at the bathroom door, Zack debated. It had been quite a bit easier to let Cloud out of his sight this time. He was growing more and more convinced that this was real, and having Cloud leave and return once made it easier to let him do it a second time. The more often they did it, the less it would worry them, and they couldn't stay attached at the hip forever.

"I'm going to grab breakfast!" he called through the door, gathering up the discarded plates and heading for the stairs.

Blessedly unaware of Zack's thoughts about Cloud and his crush, the object of said thoughts was leaning against the shower wall, thumping his head into the tiles. "Great, just great," he muttered to himself, hoping the noise of the water would keep Zack from overhearing him. "You swoon when you see him shirtless and blush like a little girl when he gets naked. When exactly did you get your balls cut off?"

Actually, he might be acting like a damn girl, but he wouldn't have this problem in the first place if he'd lost his balls somewhere along the way. Damn his hormones. Damn his body, suddenly wanting things he hadn't thought about in too long, and wanting them badly. Damn this stupid crush that he couldn't shake no matter how hard he tried. And most of all damn Zack, for being so unthinkingly, breathtakingly attractive!

Turning and ducking his head to put it under the spray, Cloud continued to curse himself. He needed to get a grip before he made a complete idiot of himself in front of his friend. It was difficult, though, when he kept getting waves of memories returning, mostly of the other things that had caused him to react in a similar fashion. Zack had always been both disturbingly immodest about his body and distressingly prone to touching. Cloud wasn't sixteen any more, damn it, he shouldn't be reacting like he was still a randy teenager.

He was, though. Maybe it was just that he'd had so little of that sort of contact in his life, and so it remained startlingly new and intense. His attempt at a relationship with Tifa had fallen apart long before it ever got to the truly intimate stages, for which he was both regretful and grateful. Regretful because he really did love her, and having her look at him that way had been literally a dream come true. Grateful because between his heavy emotional baggage and the need to hide the onset of his geostigma from her he just hadn't been able to give her what she needed and deserved, and it would have hurt her a hell of a lot more when he'd left if they'd made it as far as sleeping together.

With the geostigma gone and a large part of his guilt lifted by Aerith's forgiveness, of course, Cloud could have made another attempt. He had no doubt Tifa would make him pay for just leaving her like that, but he also knew she would have taken him in again without a second thought. Something had held him back, though. He'd thought it was the fear of what else could go wrong with his body thanks to Hojo's experiments on him, and that was still a very real concern. But now he had to wonder how much of his reluctance to get serious might have been subconscious memories of his lingering crush on Zack.

Whether it had been or not, his current problem was a bit more immediate than what to do about Tifa. The geostigma had only been visible on his arm, but it had left him feeling ill enough most of the time that he hadn't even touched himself in months. He was paying for it now, so hard it was painful. He could just turn the water on cold, of course, but he hated cold showers. And he wasn't sure it would work long anyway, when they were about to spend several hours riding on the bike with Zack pressed against his back again.

Gods, how many hours had Cloud spent on Zack's bike trying to hold himself just far enough away that the older boy wouldn't notice his reaction, and guiltily enjoying the close contact at the same time? Too many. Way, way too many, judging by the memories now flooding him once again.

Groaning, he reached for the hot water tap, pausing just before he twisted it off. There was still the problem of facing the ride, and he didn't think cold water would cut it. This might well be the last chance for real privacy he would have for a while, maybe he should take advantage of it...

Shaking his head, he growled. He couldn't believe he was even thinking about it, because Zack was right there on the other side of the door and Cloud of all people knew just how good a SOLDIER's hearing could be.

That thought triggered a whole new cascade of embarrassing memories. His eyes widened as he realized how many times Zack must have been listening when Cloud had thought he was safe on the other side of a wall or in a different tent and the pressures of his body had become too much to resist. The older boy had never said anything or given any indication that he knew what Cloud had been up to, thank all the gods. It had never even occurred to Cloud that a SOLDIER's enhanced senses might make a difference. Maybe by some miracle Zack had been asleep every time.

Frantically he tried to at least remember if he'd ever done anything monumentally stupid like calling out Zack's name. He didn't think so, but so many of those memories were still fuzzy at the edges that it was hard to be sure. Please gods let him not have given himself away like that.

All of which meant he really, absolutely should not indulge himself now. No matter how much his body was pleading for it, the needs he'd been ignoring for too long suddenly rearing their head with a vengeance. And he would just keep telling himself that for as long as it took him to remove the hand he had apparently wrapped around himself at some point in his thought process.

Hips jerking as he realized what he was doing, Cloud swallowed a moan and yanked his hand away from his cock. The sudden loss of sensation made his knees threaten to buckle and he pressed himself back against the tiles of the wall for support. They were cooler than the water but not anywhere near enough to take the heat from his body. What the hell was wrong with him? He really was acting like a damn teenager.

Blue eyes unfocused, he stared at the shower door and just stood there for a long moment, chest heaving as he panted for air. He needed to either bite the bullet and turn the hot water off or swallow his pride and finish it, or he was never going to get out of this shower. Unreasonable or not, his body was obviously not going to let him be until he did something. And he still hated cold showers.

After so long the feel of skin on skin was almost unfamiliar, and uncomfortably intense. Cloud closed his hand hesitantly over his cock, hissing through his teeth at the sensation as he stroked slowly. Trying not to think about Zack was a futile endeavour, so he finally gave in and just let the memories flow over him. He'd apparently had rather a lot of... creative fantasies involving the SOLDIER, and if the idea of jerking off to a memory of a fantasy was a little odd, it wasn't any less effective.

Biting his lip to stifle the noises that threatened to escape him, Cloud shivered and sped his pace. It felt so good he didn't want it to end, but he also didn't want Zack getting worried about how long he was taking and coming to check on him.

The thought of Zack walking in and catching him at this turned into a mental image of the older man looking first surprised, then aroused, and joining him in the shower. Imagining his hand was Zack's, Cloud closed his eyes to better preserve the illusion and tipped his head back against the wall, the spray from the shower misting over his face.

Eight years ago it had been hard to convince himself that it was Zack's hand on him; his hands had been smaller and weaker, without the hard ridges of callous from the constant sword drilling that Zack did. Now, though, Cloud's hands were just as he remembered Zack's being, and that made it a lot easier. Between that and how long it had been, in an embarrassingly short period of time he was gasping and shuddering against the wall, his hips jerking as he drove himself into his hand.

The metallic taste of copper exploded over Cloud's tongue as he bit right into his lip when he came, trying to keep from making any telltale noises. The minor pain was completely lost in the wash of pleasure, and despite his best efforts a deep groan escaped him.

As the last of the spasms faded he leaned against the wall and just tried to remember how to breathe properly. The water washed away the evidence of what he'd done, and all that was left was the lingering lassitude in his limbs and the sharp spot of pain that came whenever he touched his tongue to where he'd bitten his lip. It would fade soon enough, he certainly didn't need to waste a potion or a cure spell on it, but he was almost tempted anyway. As long as it remained, it would be a guilty reminder of what he'd just done.

He really, desperately needed to get over this crush on Zack. If the older boy ever discovered it and it drove him away, Cloud would never forgive himself. Sighing, he turned off the water and stepped out of the shower, reaching for a towel. Maybe now that things had changed so much, his subconscious would be able to let go of an obsession with someone who didn't even really exist any more. Zack wasn't the same person he had been, and neither was Cloud. They'd been through far too much for that.

Once he was dressed in his pants and shirt, still rubbing his hair dry with a towel, he stepped out of the bathroom in a wave of escaped steam. "It's all yours if you want it," he said, dropping the towel and running his hand through his hair to comb it into its proper spikes.

There was no answer, not even so much as the sound of someone breathing, and Cloud's panicked blue eyes snapped up to survey the room. He was completely alone; Zack was gone.

For one horrible moment he wondered if this was some kind of karmic punishment for what he'd just done. Had he failed some kind of test by continuing to lust after his best friend? Had it all been just a dream after all, and he'd changed it by turning it erotic?

It was unreasonable and he knew it, but he couldn't convince his heart. Terrified he really had lost Zack somehow, he bolted for the door. "Zack? Zack!"

Coming up the stairs with his hands full of dishes, Zack didn't have anywhere to dodge to when the door opened suddenly and Cloud barrelled out and straight into him. "Watch it!" he yelped, dropping the plates and grabbing for Cloud's shoulder with one hand and the railing with the other.

The thin wood of the railing snapped under the pressure of his grip, but it served to slow their momentum and alter their trajectory enough that they didn't go tumbling head over heels down to the landing. Instead they wound up collapsed in a tangled heap on the stairs, Cloud sprawled half over Zack's lap and Zack's rear smarting from the impact with the edge of the step.

"Ow," he said intelligently, wincing. "Cloud, what the hell? Where's the fire?" His heart twisted when the younger man looked up at him and he saw the sheer panic slowly fading from those familiar blue eyes.

"You were gone," Cloud whispered, the tight muscles in his chest slowly unclenching. "I came out and you were gone. I thought..." He flushed, feeling monumentally stupid. "Never mind. Sorry." Carefully he started disentangling himself from his friend, trying not to think about where exactly he'd ended up draped over.

"Hey." Stopping him from pulling away too far by the grip he still had on the younger man's shoulder, Zack gave him a sympathetic look. "I'm the one who's sorry. I guess you didn't hear me when I said I was going to get us some breakfast. I'd have panicked, too." He looked ruefully at the shattered ceramic mixed with greasy eggs and bacon that littered the staircase. "Looks like we'll have to get breakfast somewhere else."

Taking a deep breath and letting it out slowly, Cloud gave him a crooked smile. "We've really got to get over this," he said, and this time when he tried to move away Zack let him.

They untangled themselves and stood carefully, brushing at the bits of food that had landed on them. Zack grimaced at the piece of railing in his hand. "Damn. I suppose we'll have to pay for that - if there's no more Shinra that means there isn't any more fund to compensate people for damages incurred by SOLDIERs."

"There was a fund for compensating damages incurred by SOLDIERs?" Cloud asked, pausing and giving Zack a funny look.

"Well, yeah," Zack shrugged, sheepish. "Hades, you must know how easy it is to get excited and wreck something by accident. Happened all the time. Shinra was one hell of a tight-fisted bastard, but somebody in PR must have convinced him it was easier just to pay for all the damages so people wouldn't resent having SOLDIERs around."

That made a certain amount of sense, Cloud supposed. He'd been chewed out by Tifa more than once when he'd accidentally broken things around the bar. It was just a good thing that there were still enough monsters around that were worth a decent amount of gil. "I can pay for it," he said, smiling again. "I haven't really had much to spend my gil on, I've got plenty. Come on. Let's get out of here and go home."

The fall had startled Cloud, but it had also calmed him. Zack was still there. Stupid crush or not, the older man wasn't going anywhere. And the way Zack smiled at him when Cloud mentioned 'going home' made him think that maybe he didn't have to worry so much about it, after all. He'd get over the crush eventually. In the meantime, he had a friendship to enjoy.